Travel + Leisure - April 2003

Cataract Canyon UTAH

After a few
days spent floating past the sandstone cliffs of Canyonlands'
Cataract Canyon, you'll think you've been gone for weeks. Meet up
with laid-back river guides in Moab; then head down the glassy flats
of the Colorado for a three-day trip back in time. You will pass rock
strata 300 million years old and petroglyphs carved on canyon walls
by the Anasazi. (Nothing like pre-history to put life into
perspective.) Nights are spent on sandy beaches where towering red
rocks are the only walls. The river's current both lulls kayakers to
sleep and serves. The river's current both lulls kayakers to sleep
and serves as a morning wake-up call. There's enough time for the
energetic to hike to Indian ruins, isolated buttes, and otherworldly
rock formations -- and for everyone else to read by the river or just
loll around. Worried you've grown too relaxed? Halfway through the
trip you hit "the Confluence," where the Green and Colorado rivers
meet. In high-water season (May and June), this water is some of the
most challenging in North America. But by late summer, the water
becomes ideal for even novice riders.